I'm interested by ethanol. Mind you, I've never actually risked the experiment of putting ethanol fuel in my car, but I've been tempted more than once. It's claimed to be cleaner and safer for the environment, causing less pollution, and just seems a cool thing to try.

Now, I have even more reason to be interested. I thought that ethanol was made from corn. It appears it's also made from manure. I've heard of that too! What I haven't heard of is that biofuel, such as ethanol, can be created from fantastic sources such as elephants.

Yes - elephant manure can help man (that wonderful creature) make biofuel. Dutch scientists have recently discovered the produce of elephants contains a fungus that helps break down material to create biofuel that produces energy and heat.

Well, in truth, the process is a little more complicated than that. It appears that the fungus in the elephant's poop produces a yeast that ferments sugars obtained from wood.So the question that then arises is whether it's the elephant dung that produces biofuel or the wood.

At any rate, it seems that the stuff available to run my vehicle usually comes from corn, which means I'm not likely to soon be able to thank the tusked titanic for tanking up my car. However, the biofuel discoveries certainly add new reason to help preserve elephants from extinction.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-04-18T135228Z_01_KUA849907_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIOFUELS-ELEPHANTS-ODD.xml

Posted by Louise.